Major gives backing to comeback by Patten | The Independent Major gives backing to comeback by Patten Homecoming: High-level return likely for Hong Kong governor Wednesday 6 March 1996 00:02 BST Click to follow DONALD MACINTYRE Political Editor John Major has given his full backing to the idea of Chris Patten, the former Tory party chairman, returning to British politics as soon as possible after he steps down as governor of Hong Kong at the end of June next year. The Prime Minister is eager to see Mr Patten, who lost his Bath seat to the Liberal Democrats in the 1992 general election and is one of Mr Major's closest friends in politics, back in the Tory ranks at the highest level. The clear backing from Mr Major for a Patten comeback will intensify speculation at Westminster that the Prime Minister sees him as a credible heir-apparent. Mr Major who has the highest regard for Mr Patten and continues to value his political advice, is now clearly hoping that he will seek to re-enter the Commons through a by-election next year. Mr Patten's job in Hong Kong ends two months after the last possible date for a general election and he has unequivocally ruled out leaving before then.

Since Mr Patten's remarks last weekend, it has emerged that after the 1992 election he rejected the offer of a seat in the Lords, coupled with a senior cabinet job. Mr Major underlined his admiration for Mr Patten at that time by offering the former Tory chairman three options: an immediate Cabinet post in the Lords, the promise of one as soon as he could win a by-election or the governorship of Hong Kong. Mr Patten swiftly came to the conclusion that he wanted to go to Hong Kong. The implication of Mr Patten's weekend comments is that five years later he will be much more inclined to go down the by-election route as a means of regaining Cabinet office. Mr Major was more pleased than surprised at Mr Patten's disclosure on Sunday that he is seriously considering a political comeback when his term of office ends on 1 July 1997. The two men had plenty of opportunity to discuss the matter during the Prime Minister's weekend visit to Hong Kong. If the Tories won the general election, Mr Patten would certainly be in line for one of the two or three most senior Cabinet posts as soon as he entered the Commons.

He would provide a strong bulwark of support for Mr Major - especially against the right - and would also emerge as a strong future candidate for the leadership whenever that vacancy occurred. But it also raises the prospect that if the Tories are defeated, Mr Patten could emerge as the Prime Minister's preferred successor. Mr Major could ensure that Mr Patten was a candidate by not standing down until the former party chairman had secured a seat. Although closely identified with the Tory left, Mr Patten's political stance has been repositioned since he went to Hong Kong in two ways which could make him more welcome to the centre right. He has raised the prospect of "shrinking the state" - and public spending with it - to compete with Asian economies. He is also reliably said to have become much more sceptical about further European integration and a successful single currency.

More about: Major wanted Patten to dethrone Hague as leader, book claims | The Independent Major wanted Patten to dethrone Hague as leader, book claims Tuesday 14 November 2000 00:00 BST Click to follow Indy Politics John Major wanted Chris Patten, who lost his seat in the 1992 election, to return to Parliament to challenge William Hague for the leadership of the Conservative Party, a book has claimed. John Major wanted Chris Patten, who lost his seat in the 1992 election, to return to Parliament to challenge William Hague for the leadership of the Conservative Party, a book has claimed. The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt to be published next week, Mr Major was so worried about the "dreadful, overdone, right-wing stuff" expressed by Mr Hague that he wanted his old friend Mr Patten to resurrect his Westminster career. The revelations, which are guaranteed to embarrass the Tory leader, lay bare for the first time the extent of Mr Major's unhappiness at the lurch to the right taken by his successor.

The late Lord Wyatt of Weeford's memoirs will claim that the former prime minister was plotting against Mr Hague within weeks of his election as Tory leader in June 1997. However, a spokeswoman for Mr Major disputed the account. She said that he had not decided to stand down until this year and that he would have had no influence over the selection of his successor as MP. "He's wanted Chris back in politics as he is a great friend of his. He's a great political performer. He would have liked to see Chris back in the Commons, but probably alongside him as an MP," she said. The book says Mr Major attended a dinner with Lord Wyatt on 16 July that year, less than four weeks after Mr Hague defeated Kenneth Clarke for the party leadership.Mr Major made clear he wanted to give up his safe seat of Huntingdon and its 18,000 majority to allow Mr Patten to return to Parliament and launch a challenge to Mr Hague. The entry in Lord Wyatt's diaries for 166 July, 1997, states: "He will give up Huntingdon to let Chris Patten in. 'He's my best friend'.

John said: 'I don't want this dreadful, right-wing stuff all the time. I want someone to lead from the centre where it is best to be.' "I thought Hague was pretty ghastly. John said he would get Patten back in the House to challenge him ... John said he wanted Patten to be Prime Minister and he would resign at the appropriate moment, possibly going to the Lords. He might not even do that." Mr Patten, now one of the UK's European Commissioners, masterminded Mr Major's unexpected 1992 general election win as party chairman. But Mr Patten lost his seat of Bath and was posted to Hong Kong as Governor, where he oversaw the colony's handover to China. But many Tories believe Mr Patten has been too close to New Labour and Tony Blair's attempts to attract Europhile Tories in a pro-euro campaign. The former party chairman was chosen by Mr Blair to chair an inquiry into policing in Northern Ireland, which concluded that the Royal Ulster Constabulary should lose its name as part of major reforms. Mr Major issued a coded warning to his successor to be more "inclusive" at this year's Tory party conference in Bournemouth.

Despite several denials that he would step down at the next election, Mr Major announced his retirement from Westminster earlier this year. A hardline Eurosceptic has been chosen to succeed him. BBC News - Profile: Chris Patten Profile: Chris Patten Chris Patten was once tipped as a future Tory leader The former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, is to be made a Lord after stepping down as a European Commissioner. BBC News takes a look back at his career. Once tipped as a future party leader, the pro-European Conservative appeared to rule out a return to British politics in a BBC interview in 2000. The European commissioner, who lost his seat as MP for Bath in 1992, said he planned to retire, taking up writing, broadcasting and do some "serious gardening". "This is the last public service job I will do. When I finish it, I will be 60 and I would like to enjoy my sixties as much as I can," he said. "I don't want to hang around in politics forever.

"I have had two or three extraordinarily interesting jobs since losing my seat, but this will be the last one." Election winner The former party chairman was credited with winning the 1992 general election for John Major. But as a result he had little time to devote to his own constituency and ended up losing his own seat. As a reward Mr Major offered him the post as the last governor of Hong Kong, in preparation for the return of the colony to China in 1997. Mr Patten (left) helped mastermind the Tory 1992 election victory He later described the job as the experience that shaped him for the rest of his life. Soon after arriving he quickly ruffled Chinese feathers by announcing proposals for the democratic reform of Hong Kong's institutions a few months into his tenure. Beijing was outraged it had not been consulted and threatened to tear up business contracts and overturn the reforms when it took control of the colony. The crisis in relations caused the Hong Kong stock market to crash in December 1992. Reforms were eventually introduced 18 months later after numerous rounds of negotiations. And Mr Patten's tough stand won him many admirers outside Beijing.

'Fatty pang' But relations between Mr Patten and the Chinese authorities remained strained. Chinese officials and media came up with a variety of insults including, most infamously, the nickname "fatty pang". Nevertheless, the handover of Hong Kong to China in June 1997 was largely seen as a great success, and few will forget the sight of Mr Patten crying as the Union flag was taken down. Mr Patten entered politics early. He joined the UK's Conservative Party research office after graduating from Oxford University. Sri Lankan protesters make their opinion of Mr Patten plain He was elected MP for Bath in 1979, and spent most of the 1980s serving in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's governments. Mr Patten was appointed parliamentary under-secretary for Northern Ireland in 1983, before moving to the Department of Education. He then became the overseas development minister before gaining a Cabinet seat in 1989 as environment secretary. He was appointed chairman of the Conservative Party in 1990.victory. After returning to the UK from Hong Kong, he was appointed by the new Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to head the independent commission on policing in Northern Ireland.

The report recommended a radical overhaul of the service, and came under considerable fire from Ulster Unionists who objected to proposals for a name change, a new badge, a new oath of allegiance and a new flag. Since September 1999 Mr Patten has served as a member of the European Commission, responsible for foreign affairs and external relations. He aroused controversy in 2000 when it was suggested in the press that he found the job boring. And as an EU envoy to Sri Lanka in November 2003, his meeting with Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran sparked protests. About 100 protesters burnt an effigy of Mr Patten, saying he had given the Tigers legitimacy by meeting their leader. Brussels bureaucracy Mr Patten has criticised what he considers the endemic waste and fraud of the European Union's foreign aid programmes and the slowness of Brussels bureaucracy. In June he pulled out of the race to succeed Romano Prodi as president of the EU Commission after strong opposition from France and Germany. As Chancellor of both Oxford and Newcastle universities, Mr Patten has remained in the news.

He criticised the government's plans for admission targets for state school pupils as amounting to "social engineering", but has defended the need for university fees. He and fellow commissioner Neil Kinnock will take seats in the Lords once the new European Commission is in place. Bookmark with: Chris Patten: The Tory Everyman returns to the top | Profile | From the Observer | The Guardian The Observer profile Chris Patten: The Tory Everyman returns to the top This week, the Conservative grandee will be named as chair of the BBC Trust. But how will the champion of rightwing liberalism keep everybody happy? Saturday 19 February 2011 19.04 EST First published on Saturday 19 February 2011 19.04 EST From the diaries of Alastair Campbell Monday, 30 June 1997 We arrived at 11am local time. Chris Patten [former Conservative cabinet minister, last governor of Hong Kong] and his wife came on... TB praised CP's time as governor, said the Joint Declaration must be stuck to but we needed a new start with China. I felt Patten was overdoing the emotional side of things...

he kind of gave the impression it was a personal act being committed against him. There was a discussion about whether TB could leave early from the farewell ceremony tonight. I saw no problem, but CP was aghast... I sensed a lot of it was personal; that he was giving up a job he liked, his family leaving a lifestyle he liked. The handover ceremony was poor, a mix of orchestral and military music. CP's speech again overdid the emotion, and as he sat down, he was close to tears and his daughters behind him were crying. TB looked embarrassed. Eventually we escaped. There can be little doubt that, in a career as varied as Chris Patten's, the period that he will always look back on with the warmest memories is Hong Kong. The 28th and last governor of the British colony is now poised to become the last holder of the office of chairman of the BBC Trust. The appointment will be announced this week, but the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt recommended Lord Patten of Barnes on Friday to the prime minister after interviewing candidates. David Cameron is understood to agree that he is "head and shoulders" above the other contenders.

The post is likely to be scrapped as part of a fundamental review of the governance of the licence fee-funded BBC. This is the second time that he has been tipped for the job; the last occasion was in 2004 in the wake of the Hutton inquiry when the government was cleared of wrongdoing over the death of the Iraq arms inspector David Kelly and the BBC was strongly criticised for its coverage of the "sexed-up document" affair, forcing its chairman and director-general to resign. Patten said at the time he was "flattered" but no thanks. "I don't want to be neutered... one thing which is obvious is you can't be chairman of the BBC and sound off on things". Lord Hutton's conclusions were "to, put it mildly, surprising" and "the BBC matters, frankly, a lot more to the nation's health than Alastair Campbell".

But the New Labour ancien régime has gone and this is Patten's time now; a Tory grandee who admits he is to the left of Tony Blair, a silver-tongued sophisticate who served his time as a "vulgar" party chairman and proved he could be every inch as politically macho as Campbell and Mandelson but seems happier and healthier for having left it all behind. The breadth of Patten's career has been extraordinary: that he failed to scale the greatest political heights leaves his detractors free rein to deliver a verdict of journeyman rather than Everyman. But perhaps a more accurate observation would have it that his intellectually curious side triumphed over raw political ambition. He joined the Conservative research department in 1966, aged 22, was its director from 1974-79, became an MP in 1979, a minister in 1983, environment secretary in 1989 and party chairman in 1990. He masterminded the Tories' unexpected fourth consecutive general election victory with a negative campaign designed to strike fear into voters' hearts about Labour's double whammy.

But in winning the election for John Major he lost his marginal Bath seat to the Lib Dems. The defeat was attributed to the hugely unpopular poll tax he implemented for Margaret Thatcher as her environment secretary. On his first day in office: "I found myself in the House of Commons answering a debate on poll tax. I knew nothing about poll tax and the more I learnt about it the more politically crazy it seemed," he later recalled. The late Hugo Young, Guardian columnist and fellow Catholic, blamed Patten's "electoral thuggery" for his rejection by genteel Bath. Major said he would have made Patten chancellor had he held on in Bath. He could have fought a byelection and probably succeeded Douglas Hurd as foreign secretary. He might even have become party leader and eventually prime minister. He would certainly have provided a more convincing narrative than David Cameron has for ridding the Tories of the "nasty party" label. It is an irony which surely has not passed Patten by that, however hard the PM still works to cultivate a self-image replete with liberal, communitarian values, the public remains unconvinced.

Patten, by contrast, has never even had to aspire to that portrait since he so patently embodies those values in his conduct and conversation. "I am a Christian, I believe in the social market and I think we do tend to forget the difference between value and price, not just in the Conservative party but across the spectrum in this country," is his silken summary of where he stands. In spite of having proved his bare-knuckled skills on behalf of the Conservatives , one only needs to read the Daily Telegraph's reaction to the news that he is to become BBC Trust chairman to understand why Patten decided to take a different path after losing Bath. "Lord Patten of Barnes is very much the BBC's sort of Tory," sneered the Telegraph blogger Damian Thompson. "Indeed, you pretty much have to work for the BBC or the Guardian to consider that he's any sort of Tory at all. Now it appears he's the new chairman of the BBC Trust. What a wretched failure of imagination – and political nerve.

News and current affairs will carry on slanting their broadcasts in favour of the European Union and the bien-pensant consensus on any subject you care to name, safe in the knowledge that the trust that regulates them is presided over by… well, let's just call him a most agreeable supper companion for liberal broadcasters." Released from fighting the trench warfare that engulfed the Tories after the regicide of Thatcher, he was rewarded by the job of his lifetime. It is easy to understand Alastair Campbell's verdict on the unmanly spectacle of the governor's departure on the lease-expired colony of Hong Kong, an event which matches the taking leave of Granada by Boabdil, the last Moorish king of Spain, for dramatic bathos. Just listen to Patten describe his time there. "I don't think I realised how glamorous life in Hong Kong would be. Lavender [his wife] and I have always been good at dealing with the two-Jags-Dorneywood side of life, but suddenly we had a fleet of cars, a yacht, a helicopter and scores of staff waiting on us hand and foot. I remember going into my dressing room on my first morning and seeing suits and ties and socks all set out for me.

I had to explain to my very nice valet that I'd been dressing myself for 40 years and I could manage. "At weekends, we'd take the yacht out. It was fully staffed with waiters in white jackets and plimsolls. I played tennis every day and did a lot of hiking. Much was made of the fact that I earned more than the prime minister, which didn't bother me. The lifestyle was lavish but we behaved normally." What's not to like about being Hong Kong governor? In many respects, Patten was more than PM, albeit on a micro-stage. He could take decisions, like building a new airport and railway, cut taxes and increase spending and live like, well, a colonial overlord. He was given an official Chinese name – Pang Ting Hong – which morphed into the nickname "Fat Pang". Peter Mandelson later "improved" it to "Fatty Patty". His one glaring failure was his proposal to broaden democracy in the colony. Inevitably, it hit the proverbial brick wall, in this case the Great Wall of China. Brussels was an anticlimax.

He went there as the European Union external affairs commissioner and, although he found tedious amounts of bureaucracy to contend with, he remains committed to the European project. He retained his sense of humour, telling journalists about an encounter with a Chinese dignitary in his office on the 15th floor of the Charlemagne building. Patten's guest was entranced by a picture of his children on his desk and asked: "How come ugly father produce such beautiful daughters?" He served a full five-year term before his ennoblement in 2005. He was already chancellor of Newcastle University when his campaign, aged 58, to become chancellor of Oxford University succeeded. He criticised the government's plans for admission targets for state school pupils as amounting to "social engineering", but defended the need for university fees. But it comes as a surprise to hear him claim, in interviews to promote his books, that he is a troublemaker.

And one might scoff even more to recall him saying: "If politics is just about getting your backside on important seats, then it's a pretty worthless endeavour." Too wet, too leftwing, too pro-European for his own party, Patten has settled for the honorific title of Britain's leading member of the great and the good. He might just have achieved a bit more greatness, but it was always his choice. David Cameron approves appointment and Patten now faces a pre-appointment hearing on 10 March. By Jason Deans Published: 25 Feb 2011 Come on BBC, give the English-speaking world a break — RT Op-Edge Home Op-Edge Come on BBC, give the English-speaking world a break Beginning his working life in the aviation industry and trained by the BBC, Tony Gosling is a British land rights activist, historian & investigative radio journalist. Over the last 20 years he has been exposing the secret power of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and élite Bilderberg Conferences where the dark forces of corporations, media, banks and royalty conspire to accumulate wealth and power through extortion and war.

Tony has spent much of his life too advocating solutions which heal the wealth divide, such as free housing for all and a press which reflects the concerns of ordinary people rather than attempting to lead opinion, sensationalise or dumb-down. Tony tweets at @TonyGosling. Tune in to his Friday politics show at BCfm. Published time: 13 Sep, 2013 13:30 Edited time: 13 Sep, 2013 13:46 Get short URL The BBC headquarters at New Broadcasting House is seen in London (Reuters/Neil Hall) / Reuters To point a camera at your failed bosses as they squabble before a Commons Committee is an unsettling job, but that's what BBC journalists have been obliged to do this week. A “toxic mix of cowards and control freaks” is how one national newspaper commentator described BBC executives. Bilderberger Marcus Agius, who steered Barclays Bank into the worst excesses of the multibillion-pound - and still unpunished - LIBOR fraud, was put in charge of setting top BBC staff salaries.

Executive pay spiraled up and an inexplicable 2million quid was paid in voluntary sweeteners to outgoing executives, causing this week's latest toe-curling parliamentary wriggle-fest. Another shameful waste of public money by BBC bosses is good news for a certain Mr. Rupert Murdoch, the media baron whose family somehow dodged jail in last year’s phone hacking scandal. Every bad day for the state owned BBC is more money in his and his Tory-supporting shareholders’ pockets. Is this why the present Tory government seems to have set the BBC on 'self destruct’? So to the fix. Despite what all the national commentators say it's not the 'system of governance’ that’s the problem. An incremental succession of ‘yes men’ political appointments has been causing a once great institution to ossify. It’s an old fashioned 'new broom’ that's needed. All these Tory, big business, City of London vested interests have got to go. The corporation's foundering 'flagship’ current affairs program, Newsnight, exemplifies the wider decline. The show’s three top journalists have found the BBC air too poisonous to breathe over the past two years and headed for the lifeboats.

Political Correspondent Michael Crick left after Newsnight bosses hinted they wanted to edge him out. His interviews with cabinet ministers were also being systematically 'wiped’ by other staff to 'save hard disk space’. Social Affairs journalist Liz MacKean scooped the biggest story of 2012: Jimmy Savile child abuse. It was unforgivably spiked by Newsnight editor Peter Rippon and Liz has 'taken early retirement’. Economics editor Paul Mason has moved on too. He helped the nation understand, if not actually deal with, the 2008 financial crisis and is widely admired across the profession. All three have turned up like marooned shipmates on the 'other side’, ITN’s world-beating Treasure Island, Channel 4 News. Meanwhile, stifled by BBC carbon monoxide, Newsnight has become a rudderless parody of its former incarnations. Its credibility fragmenting, precious airtime is stuffed with stories that don’t matter. The same old establishment guests either fail to take the public’s interests to heart or simply have no real experience of the subject in hand. Amazingly, anchor Jeremy Paxman has doggedly kept his head while all around are losing theirs.

So, now for the simple fix Rather than dwell on the minutiae of the BBCs slow, painful demise I’ll set out my five-minute 'back of the envelope’ plan. What the BBC needs is for an honest politician to take the steam cleaner to the entire board room. Every member of the BBC Trust, with the possible exception of a financial guru should be a former broadcaster that has gained the respect of the viewers and listeners through hard graft. In a lean, lithe BBC, every manager could, even if it's just a day each month, be doing some broadcasting, even helping out in the lighting gallery or making tea. That would do more than any phony restructuring to bring respect and trust back into the corporation. But the key changes must take place at the apex from which all success or failure permeates. Current BBC Chairman Chris Patten is a failed Tory party chairman. Humiliated by the British public at the 1992 General Election, he lost the formerly-safe seat of Bath. He has a disgusting stack of investments and outside interests round his Albatross neck including advising Bridgepoint, investors in 17 private healthcare firms.

And we are supposed to trust his BBC to report fairly on the privatization of the National Health Service, from which he personally stands to gain? MI5 and the military have a malignant presence with Daphne Park from MI6 helping Margaret Thatcher decapitate a corporation critical of her policies in 1986. Within the last decade Bilderberger Pauline Neville-Jones was running private arms research company QinetiQ, These jumpy military types have no place controlling broadcasters. So here's the shortlist Dame Joan Bakewell fronted BBC's award-winning documentary and discussion series 'The Heart of the Matter’, compassionately tackling the ethical issues of our time. Investigative journalist Roger Cook fronted Britain's most popular current affairs show ever. His weekly journalistic stings were canceled after a series of brutal ‘News of the World’ Murdoch libels. The Cook Report uncovered satanic abuse rings, nuclear arms dealers and foresaw the 9/11 attacks, bringing in audiences over 10 million. In 1997 veteran BBC journalist Martin Bell decided to stand as an independent MP, successfully unseating sleazy Tory politician Neil Hamilton, and won.

BBC News Anchor for a decade Peter Sissons has been highly critical of the Corporation in retirement regularly challenging the BBC's pro-establishment bias. Former commissioner of great BBC programs turned writer and editor Janet Street-Porter has always been independent-minded and outspoken about establishment interference in British media. Writer and Jonathan Meades is one of the true heavyweights of British broadcasting and will not suffer a fool for a moment. Always articulate and outspoken he scratches away the surface of whatever he touches to get at the cold hard truth. Veteran Channel 4 News Anchor Jon Snow has built Channel 4 News’ reputation on asking the difficult questions of top politicians. They are invariably afraid to appear on the day of a big story, well aware that he will tear them to shreds. Richard Madeley, along with his wife Judy Finnigan, warmed the hearts of the nation with their forthright and staunchly grounded daytime TV chat show Richard and Judy. The principle is clear: this should be where great broadcasters go to flirt with retirement. Only allow someone onto the BBC board who has earned genuine professional and public respect for their work if you want the corporation to start ‘Informing, Educating and Entertaining’ again.

With shrivel-hearted cronies out of the way and trusted broadcasters back in charge, the sparkle of pizzazz, instead of the present stale air, will begin to percolate down through the corporation again. Reinvigorating the cultural life of the English-speaking world. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT. Profile: Lord Patten - BBC News BBC News Close share panel Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lord Patten had a turbulent tenure, including the Savile crisis and the row over senior staff pay-offs Lord Patten, who is standing down as BBC Trust chairman with immediate effect on health grounds, has faced a turbulent period during his time at the corporation. His tenure has coincided with the Jimmy Savile crisis; a Newsnight report which led to Lord McAlpine facing false claims of abuse; the row over executive pay-offs; and a £98m loss on a scrapped IT project. No stranger to challenging roles, Lord Patten - a former Conservative minister and governor of Hong Kong - became chairman of the BBC Trust in 2011.

The body, which replaced the BBC governors in 2004, is supposed to oversee the corporation on behalf of licence fee payers. As chairman, one of Lord Patten's first jobs was to appoint a successor to director general Mark Thompson. His chosen candidate, George Entwistle, lasted just 54 days before resigning over the handling of a BBC Newsnight report which falsely implicated Tory peer Lord MacAlpine in a child abuse scandal in Wales. Mr Entwistle's departure came with a £450,000 pay-off, reigniting a debate over the BBC's pay structure, which saw Lord Patten and several other senior BBC figures grilled by politicians. A trawl through the accounts found that 150 outgoing executives had received redundancy packages totalling £25m between 2009 and 2012 - much more than their contracts entitled them to. Image copyright PA Image caption Lord Patten and Mark Thompson clashed over the issue of BBC executive pay At a Public Accounts Committee hearing last July, Lord Patten told MPs he had been "shocked and dismayed" to learn of the overpayments after they had been made.

But Mr Thompson accused him of "fundamentally misleading" parliament over what the BBC Trust knew about two of the controversial pay-outs - the £1m paid to former deputy director general Mark Byford, and the £387,500 given to the marketing director Sharon Baylay. The controversy put the future of the trust in the spotlight, with some reports suggesting it would be scrapped and regulation of the BBC handed to media watchdog Ofcom. In November last year, Lord Patten told the New Statesman it was important that the BBC did not "lose its nerve". "The BBC is the only institution that I've been associated with which gets a sense of Schadenfreude about its own problems or mistakes. It beats itself up more. I think we should start to be more positive about ourselves," he said. "Just after the Savile hits - an awful, dispiriting look into the cultural practices of the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties - polls showed that despite Savile the BBC was one of the only institutions in the country that people trust and feel proud of.

The NHS, armed forces, monarchy, BBC all had big percentages in favour." Image copyright PA Image caption Chris Patten [third from left, middle row] was a member of the 1989 Tory Cabinet Lord Patten is the son of a jazz musician who attended a Roman Catholic day school in Ealing, before winning a place at Balliol College, Oxford. His first encounter with the BBC was shortly after leaving university when he was offered a traineeship but he turned the placement down, preferring to take a job in the US working with the Republican Party. On returning to England, he ran the Conservative Party's research department before entering parliament in 1979, and it was not long before he became a minister under Margaret Thatcher. Despite his distinctly un-Thatcherite views, he pushed along some of her most controversial legislation - including the poll tax. He later became the party chairman under Mrs Thatcher's successor, John Major, spearheading the Conservatives' 1992 general election campaign. Lord Patten helped to win the election for the Tories, but lost his own seat in Bath to the Liberal Democrats in the process.

Political freedoms This political disaster turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Lord Patten, who was rewarded for his election efforts with the governorship of Hong Kong. He was determined to bequeath a vestige of democracy to Hong Kong, despite opposition from the Foreign Office. A parliament, known as Legco, was assembled before the island was handed back to China, and though this was dissolved by Beijing, Hong Kong's citizens still enjoy relative political freedoms that are forbidden to their mainland neighbours. Relations between Lord Patten and the Chinese authorities remained strained. Chinese officials and media came up with a variety of insults including the nickname "fatty pang". Image caption Lord Patten receives the Union Jack flag and Hong Kong Colonial flag as part of the Hong Kong handover ceremony in 1997 Nevertheless, the handover of Hong Kong to China in June 1997 was largely seen as a great success and few will forget the sight of the former governor crying as the union jack was taken down. He later described the job as the experience that shaped him for the rest of his life.

On returning to the UK, he was appointed by Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair as chairman of the Commission into Policing in Northern Ireland, one of the cornerstones of the Good Friday Agreement. His report into the police service recommended a radical overhaul, and came under considerable fire from unionists who objected to proposals for a name change, a new badge, a new oath of allegiance and a new flag. The following year, he was appointed European Commissioner for external relations, but strong opposition from France and Germany meant he pulled out of the race to succeed Romano Prodi as president of the EU Commission. He became chancellor of Oxford University, took over as chairman of the International Crisis Group, was made a peer in 2004 and has written books about world affairs. He took up his role at the BBC Trust in 2011. During pre-appointment hearings before a Commons committee, he admitted he was not an EastEnders viewer. "I watch the programmes that you'd expect somebody of my background to," he told MPs. In fact, the committee expressed surprise that Lord Patten's knowledge of the BBC's output on television and radio was limited, but considered him a suitable candidate for the post.

He became a tireless supporter of the organisation and, despite his tribulations, he also witnessed the BBC's successful coverage of the Olympics, and an increase in audience share. Lord Patten said of his decision to stand down from the BBC: "It would not be fair to my family to continue as before; and equally it would not be fair to the BBC and those it serves not to be able to give that commitment which the role demands." He said it had been "a privilege" to have served as chairman of the BBC Trust, but added that "it is not perfect - what institution is?" Michael White and Ian Black on Chris Patten and Neil Kinnock's working relationship | World news | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close There are all sorts of odd couples in politics. Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's daughter from Grantham, came to depend on the patrician Lord Whitelaw. "Every prime minister needs a Willie," she famously declared. Tony Blair, the smooth public schoolboy, would find life harder without John Prescott, the eternal shop steward. But one of the oddest pairings must be Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten, two recent allies whose bitter rivalry a decade ago cost them both a place in government.

At the weekly meetings of the European commission, which governs the EU from Brussels, the British commissioner for external relations is sometimes heard telling colleagues: "I agree with Neil." And if the commissioner has spoken before his colleague, the vice-president for administrative reform sometimes says: "I can cut down what I was going to say and just add the one point Chris has not made." They even laugh at each other's jokes. "[Patten] is obviously a man of high intelligence and good liberal values," says Kinnock. "I get on with him well as a working partner." Patten, meanwhile, describes his former opponent as "a real gent, civility itself". Contrast such talk with March 1992, when Kinnock, then leader of the Labour party, and Patten, chairman of the Conservatives, were locked in a deadly struggle. John Major had announced the general election on March 11, going on to win it on April 9. His secret weapon turned out to be a soapbox, on which he displayed his dogged qualities and denounced socialism by the back door.

But it was reinforced by some pretty brisk thuggery orchestrated by the former darling of the moderates: the Mr Nice of the Department of the Environment, who was now the Mr Nasty in charge at Conservative central office. Patten, an Oxford-educated Tory who charmed audiences with his wit and erudition, sanctioned the tabloid sport of presenting the Labour leader from Cardiff University as a long-winded lightweight. Kinnock was a Welsh windbag, an opportunist who had ditched his anti-Europeanism and unilateralism, and was simply not up to the job. Patten is keen to counter the more lurid accounts of those days."It was not a particularly dirty campaign," he insists. "On the whole, as party chairman I was criticised for not being Tebbit-like enough rather than being too Tebbit-like. I got a lot of flak for not putting the boot in." But in any case he was as much a casualty of the election as Kinnock. The Labour leader resigned the day after his defeat, after nine years of modernising slog; Patten lost his seat in Bath to the Liberal Democrat Don Foster, after 13 years as the city's MP.

Both knew their fate on the Monday before the election, April 6. Kinnock and his wife, Glenys, privately agreed that the election was slipping away from them. They sensed it in voters' eyes. The same day Patten told Major: "You'll win; I'll lose." After his defeat, Patten was parachuted in as the last governor of Hong Kong. The five years of abuse he endured from the Chinese government ("liar", "snake", "prostitute for 1,000 years", etc) cannot have been as enjoyable as being Major's chancellor - the reward that had been earmarked for him. No wonder "Fat Pang", as kinder locals called him, suffered a nasty heart scare. Fast forward to 2002, and Patten and Kinnock's humiliations are long behind them. Now they are reformist allies in Romani Prodi's team, sharing a surprising number of opinions about the EU's institutional weaknesses and the appropriate remedies. Kinnock, who turns 60 next Thursday, is in charge of reforming the world's most important multinational bureaucracy, with 30 departments and 20,000 staff scattered across 60 buildings and three countries.

He must drag it "kicking and screaming into the 21st century" after the scandalous collapse of Prodi's predecessor, Jacques Santer, as one wizened observer puts it. It is widely seen as a hellish job, gruelling and low-profile, without the power or status enjoyed by the likes of Mario Monti (competition policy) or Pascal Lamy (external trade). Though he is not as noisily frustrated as Patten, Kinnock has likened the job to watching paint dry. In an echo of his past, it has involved taking on unions. He is seen to have done well. Patten, 57, has different frustrations. He commands the entire EU external budget - €12bn (£7.5bn), for everything from third-world development to rebuilding bombed Balkan bridges - and travels a great deal, 150 days on the road last year alone. He has a public profile - currently as a dissident critic of Washington's unilateralist instincts in world affairs. But he is also forced to play second fiddle to publicity-conscious Javier Solana of Spain, the EU's high representative for common foreign and security policy.

Patten is a former British aid minister and believes in making the sluggish Brussels policy work faster and better. But Solana has the glamour. Patten has his old opponent, among others, to blame for the £108,000-a-year burden. Contrary to reports that Kinnock tried to block Patten's appointment in 1999, the former Labour leader actually suggested Patten's name to Blair as a suitable Tory commissioner. The odd couple do not socialise much. "I don't socialise with anyone," says Kinnock, whom the BBC's James Naughtie once shrewdly described as a "gregarious loner". But their professional relationship is warm, the mutual regard apparently sincere. Looking back on their clash in 1992, Kinnock now says: "In one sense I feel as if we played a hard game of rugby and we are now in the clubhouse having a pint. I never thought of Chris Patten as a bad man. I would always have separated him off, even at the time, from some of the people he served with in cabinet." This is surprisingly generous.

As he has often confessed, Kinnock is still dogged by his failure to win for Labour in 1992, one reason he is reluctant to criticise Blair, Brown and co, who did succeed. It would be only human to bear a grudge about Patten's often condescending tactics in 1992. But no. "It was essential to make changes, but they carried with them accusations of inconsistency: 'If Labour do that with what they say are cherished principles, what will they do in office?' It was a nasty thing to do, but politically an absolutely legitimate tactic." The sight of two old enemies working on Europe (still such a controversial project in the eyes of many on the left and the Tory right) is likely to rekindle old enmity towards both - Patten as the closet lefty, Kinnock as an unprincipled opportunist, turncoats both. But Patten says that's drivel. "I am an old-fashioned moderate Tory and I guess my antecedents go back to the time when the Conservative party was the natural party of government.

Neil was the person who, more than any other, dragged the Labour party back from the grave and made it electable." More intriguing, perhaps, is how the decade has treated each of them, politically and personally. Friends of Kinnock say he is at peace with himself at last and in close communion with his party, now in power and doing much of what he would have done himself. He admires the chancellor and was recently heard to say: "I really want that guy to succeed." But his sympathies are clearly with the prime minister - and not just on the euro either. He is also an enthusiast for "hypothecating" taxes - ring-fencing money not just for the NHS, but for higher education (via a graduate tax) and transport. If Blair sometimes consults his predecessor-but-one, Iain Duncan Smith does not pay much attention to the man who might once have had his job. "Patten's lost the plot," say Tory MPs - and he feels much the same about them. Unlike Kinnock, he makes his frustration known from time to time. Patten, who backed Clarke in the Tory leadership battle, says Duncan Smith is "extremely polite and courteous" but they are not on the same wavelength.

What Patten and Kinnock both enjoy - and always have done - is a warm and close family life, though the contrasts here are instructive too. Freed from the constraints imposed on her as Labour's first lady, Glenys Kinnock became an MEP in her own formidable right. Had Patten not been sound on the great political passion of her life - international aid and development - she might not have forgiven him so readily for 1992, having always been the better hater in the family. The Kinnocks live in an unpretentious town house in Brussels, within reach of their son Stephen (now European project manager for the British Council), his wife Helle (a Danish MEP) and their two small children. Lavender Patten, famous for her un-Toryish dress sense in the 70s ("Hippy," they used to hiss), is a much more private person, a lawyer who lives in their London home, the base for three glamorous, more-or-less grown-up daughters. Daddy comes home at the weekend when he can. It is funny how things work out. Both brush aside talk of an eventual return to British politics. Neither is a natural Lords man.

Patten speaks of the sweet uses of adversity and says he has been very lucky, not least to have had a series of public jobs, the Northern Ireland police reforms included, that few Tories can now boast. He takes the same generous long view when it comes to his fellow commissioner. "Neil's contribution to the Labour party is greater than mine to the Conservative party. He has had a very distinguished career and Mr Blair should remember him regularly in his prayers. Whether Mr Duncan Smith will remember me is another matter."

Question: Name the Tory Party chairman who lost his Bath seat at the 1992General Election?
Answer: CHRIS PATTEN